Sleep Training: Week One

As I mentioned in my second Therapy Fund post, Peter and I broke down and hired a sleep consultant to help us get Sam sleeping better. The plan we worked out was pretty simple: I was not allowed in the house between 7 pm – 7 am, and was not allowed to be near Sam at nap time. The idea was to remove mommy (and her boobs) from the equation, forcing Sam to learn he can sleep without the comfort of me or nursing. This was supposed to go on for a total of 7 nights, with me finally coming back into the equation on the 8th night, assuming Sam had taken to the new routine.

Well, we are now on night 7 and things are going… well-ish. Sam is now officially sleeping through the night (YEAH!!!). The few times he has woken up at 2 AM, he has managed to get himself back to sleep without any intervention from Peter. This was one of our huge goals.

Unfortunately, it is now taking Sam almost 2 hours to go to bed at night, with multiple nighttime routine sessions. At least he hasn’t been making himself throw up every night, which is a positive change. What is is doing is screaming and screaming until Peter comes back into his room and soothes him, either by redoing the entire bed time routine or just giving him a hug at the bed rail and singing to him.

Obviously, this is not a routine we can live with either. We need Sam to learn how to go to sleep without us in the room. We need him to understand that once his bedtime routine is over and he is in his crib that it is sleep time. We need him to live without us visiting him multiple times before he goes to sleep.

So, the sleep consultant has extended my exile by another week. She really doesn’t want me to be reintroduced to the night time routine until Sam is behaving the way we want him to behave.

I see another donation to the therapy fund coming.

Just a few images the past few days:Sam rockin' the new shirt from MarleneBreaking in to the neighbors houseNew water table